Millar's fascinating chapter illustrates...how close attention to the supernatural can enrich and expand our understanding of early modern English culture. Taken as a whole, this book contributes significantly to this enterprise.- Darren Oldridge, University of Worcester
Overall, this collection is a valuable addition to the literature on ghosts, exorcism, witchcraft, magic and supernatural literature in the period...offering as they do new perspectives on what we mean by 'scepticism' in the early 1600s.- Francis Young, Ely
Introduction: the intersections of supernatural and secular power, Victoria Bladen and Marcus Harmes. Part I Magic at Court: John Dee, alchemy and authority in Elizabethan England, Glyn Parry; Reginald Scot and the circles of power: witchcraft, anti-catholicism and faction politics, Pierre Kapitaniak; Treasonous Catholic magic and the 1563 witchcraft legislation: the English state's response to Catholic conjuring in the early years of Elizabeth I's reign, Michael Devine. Part II Performance, Text and Language: Shaping supernatural identity in The Witch of Edmonton (1621), Victoria Bladen; 'Mong'st the furies finde just recompence': suicide and the supernatural in William Sampson's The Vow Breaker (1636), Fiona Martin; 'You shal reade marvellous straunge things': Ludwig Lavater and the hauntings of the Reformation, Catherine Stevens; The politics of supernatural wonders in Paradise Lost, Martin Dawes. Part III Witchcraft, the Devil and the Body: The Devil and bishops in Post-Reformation England, Marcus Harmes; Sleeping with devils: the sexual witch in 17th-century England, Charlotte-Rose Millar. Index.